The Liberty Line

The Legend of the Underground Railroad

Larry Gara

Publication Year: 2013

" The underground railroad -- with its mysterious signals, secret depots, abolitionist heroes, and slave-hunting villains -- has become part of American mythology. But legend has distorted much of this history. Larry Gara shows how pre-Civil War partisan propanda, postwar remininscences by fame-hungry abolitionists, and oral tradition helped foster the popular belief that a powerful secret organization spirited floods of slaves away from the South. In contrast to much popular belief, however, the slaves themselves had active roles in their own escape. They carried out their runs, receiving aid only after they had reached territory where they still faced return. The Liberty Line puts slaves in their rightful position: the center of their struggle for freedom.

Cover

THE LIBERTY LINE

CONTENTS

Preface

Few Americans are unfamiliar with the romantic saga of the underground railroad, for its combination of righteous
behavior and high drama are deeply imbedded in
many minds. Though this story is compounded of both ...

1. The Legendary Railroad

Thousands who attended the Columbian World's Fair
in Chicago in 1893 saw a painting by Charles T. Webber
entitled "The Underground Railroad"; this dramatic
picture showed a large family of fugitives arriving ...

2. Slavery and Freedom

The lendary underground railroad carried its passengers
"from Slavery to Freedom." The phrase, quoted
from the title of Professor Siebert's history of the underground
railroad, implies a simple and dramatic ...

4. A Deep-Laid Scheme

Looking back across the years, a veteran of the underground
railroad described it as a "deep-laid scheme, having
in view the restoration of God-given rights to helpless,
hunted fugitives, ... resulting in gradual ...

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